MARTY
This is Marty's tenth year back in the classroom, after taking a nine year hiatus to stay home with our kids. This year she returned to peak form. She would have gotten there sooner, but the covid-disruption set everyone's plans back. She is a marvel in the classroom and is someone who connects with young people far better than most. I see this every time we go to a school event in the way students' faces light up when they see her. Travelling with her is like being part of a Selena Gomez or Taylor Swift entourage. The braver students will make furtive glances towards me and ask Marty in hushed tones if that is Mr. Walter. Marty's answers range from "yes, it is" to "no, this is one of my side-guys." Whatever response she provides sends the freshmen girls into stifled titters. It is all quite adorable.

While there are many ways to gauge good and popular teachers, we ran into a new measure this year. The school polled all the students, and one of the questions asked who their safe teacher was. That is, who is the teacher they would go to if they were in trouble and needed an adult they could trust. Marty's name appeared as an answer 77 times. The next closest was in the low 20s. That. Is. My. Girl. (and gratefully the mother of my children).

TROY
This is the first year (in seven) I haven't wondered, worried, and fretted daily if my company would survive. Before now, one of the first five thoughts through my mind every morning concerned the health and future of my company. This past year we successfully navigated one of our greatest challenges to date. We also made one of our greatest signings to date, which due to our non-disclosure agreement with them, I'm not at liberty to share, BUT it is one-hell-of-a-get. And we continue to enjoy growing revenues much to the joy of my business associates and wife.

There are numerous benefits to cresting this hill. One of the more palpable is enjoying the freedom to travel. Given today's technologies, I've long held the ability to work from anywhere but lacked the funds to do so. To give perspective, my year one salary at ofCourse was $14,500. Now that we are a little more solvent, it means I can work somewhere else for a week or even a month. After being grounded by responsibility and poverty for seven years, this mountain air (literally) is wonderfully restorative.

MARTY AND TROY
January 10, 2023, marks our 25th wedding anniversary. It also marks 33 years together. Marty is always quick to add that this means she has been kissing on the same guy for 32 years. When people move to correct her, asking if she meant to say 33 years, she happily reports no mistake and whispers, a bit girlishly, that we might have still been kissing on other people that first year.

Bella took the above picture on the dance floor at our niece Kate's October 2022 wedding. I imagine a photography purist might nitpick the image, saying it is not in focus or the lighting is off or it could be better framed. But they would be wrong. I believe this photo is perfect. To start, this is the exact pose Marty struck the first time I ever saw her after she threw open the front doors of her family home and yelled, "who's ready to dance!!!". Second, the smile on my face conveys how I felt after first setting eyes on this spectacular beauty, the most stunning girl I had ever seen up until then or since. The moment also captures that 33 years after our first meeting, Marty still possesses the vivacity she had in youth, and I the blissful adoration of this woman that can still make me wear that smitten boy's face. Regarding any blurriness you may detect, well, that is pretty much how the world looks to Marty and me these days unless an object is held at a perfect distance from our love-struck eyes.